The Kickback is comprised of brothers Billy and Danny Yost, guitarist Tyler Zee, and bassist Eamonn Donnelly. Following the brothers’ emigration from rural South Dakota to Chicago in late 2009, the group received acclaim from Rolling Stone’s Hype Monitor, Sound Opinion’s Jim Derogatis, and numerous blogs including You Ain’t No Picasso and the Chicago Sun Times for their 2010 and 2011 EP releases, Great Self Love and Mea Culpa Mea Culpa. The group is currently writing and rehearsing what will mark their first full-length release, but is taking a break for a residency at Schubas in Chicago. Each Monday in March The Flavored Players Series ft. The Kickback will take over Schubas at 8PM
Congratulations on the upcoming residency at Schubas in Chicago. Do you have anything special planned for it besides doing what you do best?
We’re still working it out at present, but since we have a tendency to drop a lot of material by the wayside in the name of boredom, we’ve got a hell of a back-catalog that we’re going to try to match up and, in many cases, introduce to an audience for the first time. Every show will be a little bit different, and the last show we’re going to perform our forthcoming LP in its entirety with a Craigslist Orchestra featuring a group of fantastic people who were willing to come and record brass and sax for our LP for nothing more than the joy of doing it. But each night will be something different, and that’s what’s most important to us.
How have your live shows change from say two years ago? For new fans attending not familiar with your originals is there any chance for a cover or two and what you do like to surprise with?
I’m not sure how much the live show has changed, but I guess you could consider our set a little more mature. We take our live performance very seriously, too seriously, and that has meant trying different sets 50 different ways and just when it gets right, you add three new songs and start over again. I typically play as if I’m fleeing creditors, and I don’t think that has changed much. As far as covers go, we inevitably wind up picking songs two people are very excited about and the general population would prefer to have never heard in the first place, so I’m not sure if we’ll be trying our luck. Of course we will.
Tells us a little a bit about your band history to us national readers who haven’t heard about The Kickback yet…. How did the band come together, were there any seminal things that made you guys want to pursue this further?
It’s much too convoluted to make interesting, so the short story goes I started the band in college in South Dakota as a logical response to having a band in high school. A year into college, I decided that it was what I wanted to do at any cost, so I got my teaching degree, moved here with my brother who felt likewise, became a substitute teacher, posted extremely detailed Craigslist ads, found the boys of my dreams, and here we be. I attribute any minor success of the band and the music to a paralyzing fear of my own mortality, some incredibly talented friends and musicians, the tireless efforts of our manager, Brian, and-what I hope will become musician shorthand-Randy Newman changes.
#45 The Kickback: Scorched Earth (Do-Da) from Love Drunk on Vimeo.
Your new record is said to be a lot rawer and ambitious than your first two EPs – how would you best describe the sounds you’re putting together and what creatively influenced this creative leap?
Unlike any of our previous studio experiences, we have actually had time to work with sounds on the LP. This is because we’re doing pretty much everything ourselves and while it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of comfort and sexual prowess, it has afforded us the opportunity to see just how weird one can get with a bass harmonica or, more importantly, what it takes to not make something sound necessarily “right” but interesting. The music and arrangements are more ambitious simply because there are more of them. I’ve always had ideas but never the time or ability. Now we have the time, though I’m still waiting on some of the ability.
The record will be rawer in terms of subject matter, I think. The death thing has played a big part. Then trying to find a way to match up lyrics about being terrified with uptempo stuff. I always hear Tom Hanks in That Thing You Do. “I want something snappy!” But imagine if The Wonders didn’t do the key change and instead the guy starts screaming about cryogenic freezing or home invasion. And with harpsichord.
I found it interesting that you marked David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest as an influence. Can you elaborate on that more and let us know how something so complex can be funneled into your music?
Every time a band mentions a dead author I imagine that author rolling around in his or her grave begging not to be connected to a bunch of idiots. That said, the LP will be called Sorry All Over The Place and is taken from a fictional filmography from a fictitious set of footnotes from the David Foster Wallace book, Infinite Jest. As I’m sure a lot of people can claim, his work means the world to me and a couple of his books did some pretty heavy lifting in terms of themes and emotional context for the record, whatever that means. If you go to Youtube and watch segments of interviews he has given, his clarity of thought is staggering and it also looks like it’s killing him to get it out. It looks incredibly painful. To even anecdotally try to link our music to his work should no doubt be seen as ugly, rude, and blasphemy. But you always kill what you love, I guess.
What is the song-writing process like for The Kickback? Who does the writing, arranging and where does a song usually get born?
A song typically starts as a 30-second blip on a voice memo on my phone. These things hang around for months and years and come together at different times and different paces. When I’m able to get one together, I usually bring it 90% done to the group. Danny throws a beat behind it fairly quickly and the rest is usually pretty easy because I typically have it arranged (or partially arranged) in my head, though a lot of times Danny will help pick it apart and put it back together.We only run into problems when I bring in a song that’s only partially completed. That’s really never worked well for us; maybe we’re not the jamming type or I’m a control freak. All of that said, there are things that happen when everybody starts playing that you can never ever account for and are invaluable for most of the songs. Sometimes that makes something you weren’t sure about becomes the best thing you think you’ve ever heard and sometimes that sends a “sure thing” back to song purgatory.
What would you signify as your big turning point so far in terms of gaining an audience and building your confidence? Any radio plays, well attended shows, guest sit ins?
Under no circumstance will we ever be considered an overnight success. We have built and built and torn down and built with questionable plastics and torn down and built again. So far this year, getting a Daytrotter session and securing the Schubas residency have been a very big deal for us. We’re very excited, but we’ve also collectively worked our asses off for it. Our next goal is to get someone other than us concerned about putting out our full-length and then to hit the road like a mother.
Can you talk about your weekly podcast- how do we access it and why should we listen?
The podcast was initially a reaction to the question I get a lot: “So, you guys have a tour bus, right?” There’s something so innocent about the question, we thought it would be interesting to shed some light on what it’s like to be a band that still hopes to make over $100 for a performance of original live music and loses money on virtually every venture it tackles. The way 99% of bands exist. There are segments from our traveling but a lot of episodes stem from general frustration with the recording process and not being out playing. Other times it’s bizarre fantasies involving Muppets and Michael Keaton. Or I whine about ping pong. You really have no reason to listen unless you’re a fan of the band, and I feel like even then it’s a lot to ask. If you were looking to do something instead of giving up something for lent, you can check it out on iTunes or at thekickback.podbean.com. It’s called Diary of a Disas-tour w/ The Kickback.
Would you rather be labeled a South Dakota band or a Chicago band and why? Big fish in a small pond or other way around?
I like right where we’re sitting, actually. South Dakota-via-Chicago. I like it here, but the Dakota sticks hard. It’s what keeps me out of the hipster jean shorts and away from white sunglasses. Most of the time. I’m not sure the fish comparison holds much water anymore. If some girl from North Dakota winds up on a Mark Ronson record, I’d say it’s anybody’s game, and thankfully so.
If you can curate a festival who would be on it?
I made this list a long time ago, but if you don’t mind a repeat:
Randy Newman w/ piano
Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem w/ guest appearance by Julian Casablancas and Brian Wilson
The Kickback w/ Jonny Greenwood on keyboards and Micheal Keaton just hanging on the side of the stage to give us street cred
Dana Gould (It’s incredibly disrespectful to have one of the greatest comedians in the world opening a show, but baby’s backed into a corner here)
